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NHL Picks

Strong Betting Trends Warrant an Over Bet for Flames vs. Ducks

The Flames come in off a hard fought 2-1 win over Chicago in OT Friday night, which now gives them wins in 3 of 4 games, while the Ducks come home off a 4 game road trip which they split games.

Flames Knock Off Champs in OT
The Chicago Blackhawks will have a bull’s eye target this year after taking the Stanley Cup last year and the Calgary Flames certainly stepped up their game in the 2-1 win over the champs in OT on Friday night. Standing tall on this night in goal was Karri Ramo, who had 18 saves in the game. He is now 6-7 with a 3.04 GAA on the year. It was a measure of revenge for him after losing 4-1 at Chicago just five days earlier. Ramo is 2-1 with a 2.89 GAA in his career vs the Ducks.

Scoring for Calgary in the win was Sean Monahan in the first period and Johnny Gaudreau got the game winner just 1:38 into the OT period. It was his fifth goal of the year and 20th point, which leads the team. Calgary has not been a good offensive team this year as they rank 23rd in the league in scoring (2.4 gpg) and 28th when on the power play (14.3%). At the defensive end they are 30th in goals allowed (3.5 gpg) and 28th in the penalty kill (74.6%). The Flames are last in the league in goal differential and they are hoping that a little bit of rest will help them as they haven’t played since Friday and after this game they don’t play again until Friday.

Ducks Get Blanked At Tampa BayBad offense rears its ugly head once again for the Anaheim Ducks as they were shutout by Tampa Bay by a 5-0 score on Sunday night. The Ducks started the year having been shutout in five of their first eight games and they thought they had left their offensive woes behind them as they offense had been playing much better, but Sunday was more of a look back at the beginning of the year. This is now the 6th time they have been shutout this year and if it wasn’t for Philadelphia’s bad offense they would be ranked last in the league in scoring. As it stands they are now 29th, putting up just 1.8 gpg.

Taking the loss in the game vs Tampa Bay was Frederik Andersen, who is now just 4-11 with a 2.54 GAA on the year. He is slumping badly as he is 1-4 in his last five starts and has allowed 17 total goals in those games. Should he get the start here he is 3-1 with a 2.87 GAA vs the Flames in his career. Anaheim has been an average defensive team, ranking 14th in goals allowed (2.6 gpg) and 1st in penalty kill.

Calgary is:
3-8 in their last 11 vs. the Western Conference
3-13 in their last 16 road game

Anaheim is:
25-1 in their last 26 home games in this series
The host is 44-11 in the last 55 meetings

Looking at the trends above, you would think that this is a no-brainer. Anaheim has completely dominated the series at the Honda Center and the host has dominated the series overall. Calgary has been a poor road team of late and you would think that would not change here vs an Anaheim team this is off a bad shutout loss. This is one of those games that can go either way and I look to see a lot of goals scored.